Magazine for releasable loads



R. A. ROBERT ETA.

yMAGAZINE FOR RELEASABLE LOADS Filed OCT.. 4, 1954 Sept. 24, 1957 2,807,193 Patented Sept. 24, 1957 i ee MAGAZINE Fon RELEASABLE LoADs Roger Aim Robert, Boulogne-sur-Seine, and Pierre P. Matge, Drancy, France Application October 4, 1954, SerialNo. 460,202 Claims priority, application France November 30, 1953 2 claims. (ci. :sa- 1.5)

`the aircraft in which it is located, either in the loaded condition prior to release of the rockets, or in the releasing conditions during tiring, or in the unloaded condition after the rockets have been tired therefrom.

It is likewise an object of the invention to provide such a magazine which is free of pivoted trapdoors and the like, and consequently which does not comprise any mechanism for opening and closing such doors, and wherein at the same time the rocket compartments remain effectively sealed both in the loaded and the unloaded conditions of the magazine.

It is a further object to provide a magazine which will be lightweight, simple and economical to construct and reliable in operation.

According to the invention the lower orifice or outlet -of a rocket magazine is sealed with a wall adapted to be broken on descent of the rocket or rockets, means being provided for re-sealing said outlet after the rocket or rockets have all been released.

The invention particularly contemplates a form of ernbodiments wherein the sealing of the bomb release oriiice after tiring of the rockets is accomplished by the same means as those serving to support the rockets in the magazine.

A clear understanding of the invention will be had from the ensuing description made with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a transverse section of the magazine in loaded condition;

Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the magazine in empty condition;

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic overhead view; and

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic View of the rocket support in side elevation.

The improvement of the invention is applicable with advantage to apparatus for the release of rocket-bombs of the kind described in U. S. Patent No. 2,630,740 filed October 22, 1949 by the applicants, and comprising means for directly suspending the rockets from one another in one or more vertical ranks, the uppermost rocket of each rank being suspended from a support which is adapted to be advanced downwardly for successively releasing the rockets of the related rank.

The rocket magazine is disposed in a correspondingly shaped recess 11 formed in the fuselage 12 of an aircraft, the under face of which is shown at 13. Said magazine is of generally parallelopipedic form. It comprises vertical fixed uprights or partitions 14 and 15, sustaining horizontal transversely extending upper beams'or girders 16 and 17 one of which is located adjacent to the actuator means 18 provided for advancing the support. Inter posed between the upper girders 16 and 17 on the one side and horizontal longitudinally extending lower beams or girders 19 and 20 on the other side are pairs of threaded rods `21 and 22, and 23 and 24 respectively. The said rods are mounted in the girders for rotation about the axes of the rods. Cooperating with the threaded rods are nuts as shown at 25 and 26 for the rods 21 and 22, said Anuts being connected with a generally plate-like support 27 which extends over an area substantially equal to the horizontal cross section of the magazine. This support includes an under face 2S which is preferably solid and which is provided with a shape to be specified later. The support is formed with reinforcing ribs and with shoulders or cutouts for the passage of adjacent elements. `Mounted on the under face 28 of the support 27 are front arms and rear arms, the said front and rear arms being equal in numbers to that of the ranks of rockets to be supported. Five front arms 301, 302, 30a, 304 and 30s have been illustrated in Fig. l. Suspended from the front and rear arms are the uppermost rockets 311-315 of the respective ranks, while the next lower rockets are directly suspended from the uppermost rockets 31 and so on, so that the magazine is lled with rockets extending horizontally in each respective vertical rank.

The under oriiice or release outlet of the magazine is sealed with a wall 32 made of a material which is strong enough to withstand the stresses which are normally exerted on the skin of an aircraft fuselage, particularly the aerodynamical forces, while yet being weak enough to insure that it will easily be broken through by the lowermost rockets 331, 332, 33a, 334, 335 when these rockets are moved down for release. The frangible wall 32 may for example be made from the material known by the trade name Klegecel though this statement is not to be interpreted in a restrictive sense. In the example, the wall 32 is subdivided into as many panels as there are ranks of rockets: thus there is a panel 34 interposed between the longitudinal girder 19 and a marginal girder 35; a panel 37 between the longitudinal girder 20 and a marginal girder 38; and a panel 36 which in turn is subdivided into three panels, the one interposed between the longitudinal girder 19 and an intermediate girder 39, another between an intermediate girder 39 and an intermediate girder 40, and the third between the intermediate girder 40 and the longitudinal girder 20. Various other arrangements of the panels may be provided, and particularly there may be provided a single panel forming the Wall 32.

With the magazine filled with rockets, and the lower wall 32 of the magazine in position, the rockets are released in the same way as described in the above-mentioned U. S. Patent. When the lowermost rockets 331-335 hit the panels 34, 36, 37 the panels break up into small harmless fragments and the rockets are tired in succession, the support Z7 progressing downwardly owing to the cooperation of the threaded rods such as 21, Z2 with the nuts 25 and 26, the movement of the support being produced by rotating the said threaded rods.

After all the rockets in the magazine have been released, the support 27 is in its lowermost position (Fig. 2) and its under face 28 is so formed that in this position it will form an exact extension of the fuselage wall 13, as was previously the case with the frangible wall 32, so that perfect aerodynamical conditions are once again reestablished. Cutouts or cavities 41, 42, 43 and 44 are provided in the support 27 for housing the respective girders 19, 39, 40 and 20.

The invention contemplates mounting the arms 30 in retractible manner upon the support 27. For this purpose, a front arm 30 may for example be mounted for rotation about a transverse axis 45 of the support 27. The arm is formed with a forwardly directed shoulder emptytonditionof'themagazina with the lunder `face ofV thejsupport acting :to provide a continuous Vfuselage con- -tour,;tle armsv 303 and 30 dofnot project-from -theface 28V y'landgthislface is as smooth as thewall A32.

or'eeloadthemagazine -t-he -armsf30 and 30 aref'with- Idrawni-fr-om v-out of their `recess Yagainst Vthe action of .springsl47and A50, `a rocket "is suspended lwith vits front suspended from the Erst, and lso on, the support 27b eing returned -to lits uppermost positionby rotation of the threadedrods 21 andZZ-in a direction -reverse from that used in In'ng the rockets.

Vv--What we claim is:

LlfFor `mounting within an aircraft fuselage, in com- Ybination'z'v a `rocket-*bomb-rnagaz-ine, means for Ysuspending aaplurality of 'rocket-bombs in said magazine and com- .prising a-suspending member Vlocated towardsthe top of saidmagazine, means for advancingsaid member downnwards, andA abottom wail `for said magazine, --which wall is made of a materialbreakable -by impact o f a lowermost rocket-bomb Y in lthe magazine during -the downward aeome- Y and rear ends 'from said arms, .',tlien another -rocket is ladvance of said member, theundersurface of said memberbei-ng --so confor-med has .to provide -a `continuous lsurface with adjacent portions of the skin of said fuselage when the suspending member has reached the lowermost position thereof. Y

2. For mounting in .an aircraft fuselage, in combination: a rocket magazinemeansfor suspending a plurality .0f rockets themegeineand@marielle e Ysuspending member adjacent thetop of the magazinef'means for'advancing asaid .memben downwardly, abottom wallr-for said magazine made of ymaterial lbreakablezby 4`impact of a lowermost rocket .during Athe downward adyamwf Said member, 'means providing an under surface for said member Ksof0rmed.astoprovideacontinuousstreamlined surface with adjacent portions of the fuselage skin inthe lowermostk position of the member, arms supporting an uppermost rocket of the plurality from said'suspending member, and means for retracting said arms intro ysaid member on release ofwall the rockets ofthe 'plurality/7.7

-R Vefereri'es-fitted in therle of this vpatent ,UNITED STATES PIYE-1`IDS 7.2,@,855951 Baltasar t sept. 18,1945

2&3057249 Roberw11 al- .;-F-*Mar- 10, 1956` A2,765,118? fcntl seais, 1.95.6

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